The 1971 premiere of Leonard Bernstein's "Mass" not only gave the world a major work by a beloved composer, but it also served as the career launching pad for baritone Alan Titus, one of the biggest operatic stars to ever emerge from Colorado.

The New York native, who moved with his family to Denver in 1953 and graduated 10 years later from East High School, retired in 2010 after a 40-year career that took him to many of the world's most prestigious opera houses.

After earning his performance certificate from New York's Juilliard School and working briefly in St. Paul, Minn., the 24-year-old singer traveled to Washington, D.C., to audition for the "Mass." He believes his jean suit and long hair was exactly the look Bernstein envisioned for the work, which spoke to the disaffection of that era's youth.

"He (Bernstein) sent for the music, and I sang the 'Lord's Prayer' for him. They had this convocation, and they came out and said, 'You're it,' " Titus, 65, said from his home in Germany.

The baritone had snagged the central role of the Celebrant, whose first solo comes in "A Simple Song."

"Bernstein pulled up a chair in front of me, straddled the chair and fed me the inflections," he said. "Basically, what you hear is exactly, with a better voice, what Bernstein taught me to do."

In part because of the widening divisions in American politics, Titus is not surprised that the "Mass" has enjoyed a major comeback in recent years.

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"The same political drama that we went through in the '60s is happening now," he said. "People still relate to that whole youth movement of protest and pot and long hair and tie-dye, because there are pockets of our country that still exhibit people like that."

Titus' early fascination with opera came from Gina Parilli, his godmother and mother's best friend. She was an opera singer, who had toured with famed Italian bass Salvatore Baccaloni.

"Opera was classy," he said. "It was something you had to study for. It was special. So, I sort of aimed my sights toward that."

But his first experiences on stage came in Broadway musicals, beginning with "High Button Shoes" at East High and later shows at Denver's Bonfils Theater and outdoors in Cheesman Park.

After an unsuccessful year of vocal studies at the University Colorado at Boulder in 1963-64, Titus took a year off and sang Broadway highlights at Bill McHale's Flaming Pit lounge in Cherry Creek.

But in 1965, he bid farewell to Denver to embark on a path that ultimately earned him international operatic fame.

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